Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a base material processing apparatus and a base material processing method which process an elongated strip-shaped base material while transporting the base material in a longitudinal direction thereof and which further correct the meandering of the base material.
Description of the Background Art
A base material processing apparatus which performs a variety of processes on an elongated strip-shaped base material while transporting the base material in a longitudinal direction thereof by means of a plurality of rollers has heretofore been known. In such a base material processing apparatus, the base material is transported while meandering in some cases because the base material is moved out of its ideal position in a width direction thereof. There is apprehension that the occurrence of the meandering of the base material gives rise to deterioration in processing quality. To prevent this, a meandering correction apparatus for suppressing such meandering is incorporated in the base material processing apparatus.
A conventional meandering correction apparatus is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-013753. A system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-013753 measures the sidewise position of a web with high precision by means of an edge position sensor and further determines the frequency of the sidewise movement thereof. Before the web is transported to a printing processing machine, this system controls the orientation of the web, based on the determined frequency, to compensate for the sidewise movement.
However, when a meandering correction is made upstream of a processing part in the course of the transport of a base material, there is a danger that meandering occurs again before the base material is thereafter transported to the processing part. Also, when a plurality of processing heads are arranged in the direction of the transport of a base material as in a one-pass type processing apparatus, there is a danger that the meandering state of the base material is further changed when the base material passes through the processing heads respectively.
Also, when a meandering correction is made in a position near a processing part, it is difficult to ensure space for provision of a new meandering correction apparatus because an existing processing apparatus is disposed near the processing part.